Secret Guard
by nine-orcids
Summary: Unknown to the village, Uzumaki Naruto had a secret guard growing up he didn't even know about. They were members of ANBU...and some of them were escecially close to him.


_I don't own Naruto…T-T_

The purple haired ANBU watched as the little boy was beaten by the crowd of civilians and off duty Chunnin. She felt her heart seize at the sight of her family's bleeding form. But she couldn't do anything for him. She was under orders not to let him know he was being watched at all times during the day and night. It wasn't just that she'd watched over him since the sealing…it was who he was.

He was the son of the Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato. One of the most respected, powerful, and feared man in the Five Great Nations, even six years after his death. He was the jailor of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most powerful tailed beast in their world. He was an outcast for something he couldn't control, like her. He was also the son of Uzumaki Kushina.

The woman had taken over training her after Orochimaru had fled the village and no one would have anything to do with her. The one who'd helped get her into ANBU through old contacts she still had from her own time in the secretive group of elites. The one who'd taken her into her home, given her a family when she had no one of her own, helped to develop a new future. When she'd found out the redhead was pregnant, she'd been overjoyed as she had seen it as a chance of a little brother or sister. But then the attack…

Now the small boy was attacked nearly everyday and there was nothing she could do. If she tried to make any contact with him, she'd be in trouble with the Hokage and he would have more trouble with the citizens of Konoha. After all this time, they still viewed her as an accomplice to the traitor of a Sannin. This was only because she'd been his apprentice… and because he'd marked her with a Curse Mark. The fourth had tried to seal it for her as a favor to Kushina, but he hadn't known enough about it. He'd been in the middle of designing a seal to take care of it for good when he'd died, so it went unfinished and it was still mostly active.

The only comfort she drew nowadays was watching the boy with her friend Kakashi, the only living member of the fourth's old Gennin Team. He'd been over frequently to their house, as she had, when Kushina had been pregnant and also thought of Naruto as a little brother. He'd already stated that he would be the boy's Jonnin Sensei. Like her also, he was forbidden to make contact with the small blonde and had to make do with watching over him as she.

Both were part of his guard. The other members were a man named Tenzou, whom had been the only survivor of an experiment done by Orochimaru that led to the condition of him being able to use Mokuton, a man named Genma, who had been on the same team as Kushina as a Gennin and had a habit of chewing on Senbon when not on duty, Morino Ibiki, a man who worked part time in the T&I department, and sometimes, although no one knew it, they were joined by the young Uchiha Itachi, heir of the Uchiha clan.

As soon as the crowd dispersed, they would quickly take him and bring him back to the ANBU base. There, a medic who didn't see him as the Kyuubi as the ones at the hospital did would treat his wounds. Then they would take him home, to the small apartment he'd gotten on his sixth birthday after the orphanage had kicked him out. He'd gone straight to them, the Leaf Orphanage, the day after the attack. The couple who ran it had had no problem taking him in…that is until they found out what he was. After they knew of the Kyuubi, they'd had as little contact with him as possible. Often times, they'd gone without feeding him for a week. He'd only ever had moldy and unfit food to eat, shabby clothes to wear, and if he wanted to bathe he had to do it in a small, always cold, stream behind the old building. He was blamed and punished for other's bad deeds, things he'd had nothing to do with. Several times, he'd been locked in their cellar for long periods of time.

If they'd have let her, she'd have taken him in and raised him as her own. Even though she was only fifteen at the time, she was willing to become a teen mother of sorts. Kakashi was ready to help her. But the council and the Hokage had voted against their offers of adoption. Saying they were to young. Minato's old sensei and the boy's godfather, Jiraiya the Toad Sannin, had also tried to get custody. But he to was declined, instead sent on a fool's mission to learn information of the whereabouts of Orochimaru… start a spy network for the good of Konoha.

So the two teens, now twenty-one, were still not allowed to take him. There were laws, set down by Sarutobi, that stated no one could talk about that night or let Naruto know what he contained. It was these laws the council said they were sure not to uphold if they took him. The only edge they were given was there duty to watch over him. Although it could also be the fact that they were the only ones willing to do it. No one else wanted to be stuck on Demon sitting duty. In their eyes, it was one of the worst duties to be landed with and was often threatened as a punishment.

The small boy had no idea he was being watched by them. The Cat, the Hound, the Snake, the Eagle, the Panther, and the Weasel. It was their duty to make sure no harm came to him, that he was safe, and not be known to anyone, least of all him. It was their duty to make sure he was safe, but most of the time they failed in that job. Several times they'd had to stand by and watch helplessly as he was beaten by drunken mobs or off duty ninja and then had to skulk in and fetch him while he was still unconscious. The poor child…

Often times they were lucky if they could get him out unharmed or only slightly bruised. But than was not often. Most often…they had to bring him back from the brink of death. Twice so far, he actually had died on them and that was only in the last two months!

It pained her that she had to see him through this. How do you watch the child you were willing to take in as your own when you're just a kid yourself and should've been your little brother be treated like this? Having to fight for his life at four…five…six years of age? It was painful that her mentor's son was the child she looked after her…

They were his secret guard. The "Wind's Shield" as they called themselves… No one outside of the ANBU corpses and the Village Council knew of them. Not even their protected. He was their child in a way. Only aloud to be around him from afar… they kept him as safe as they could in the limits they were aloud.


End file.
